With an explosive growth in utilization of communication devices, mobile telecommunications carriers are seeing an exponential increase in network traffic. To meet the demands of higher traffic and/or improve the end user experience, conventional systems deploy metro cells (e.g., small cells) that improve network coverage and capacity by offloading mobile traffic between overlapping cells. Metro cells can be deployed in many different ways. For example, a metro cell co-channel deployment model with macro cells can be utilized for spectrum-limited scenarios.
To mitigate interference in a heterogeneous network (HetNet) environment an Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (eICIC) mechanism can be utilized wherein, the macro cell avoids scheduling data in “protected” sub-frames as specified by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 10 (Rel-10). The protected” sub-frames of eICIC are known as “Almost blank subframes” (ABS) that do not transmit any traffic channels and mostly comprise low-power control channel frames. The macro cell can configure ABS subframes such that metro cells can communicate with their served user equipment (UE) during the ABS frames and avoid interference from macro cell. Further, a Further Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (FeICIC) mechanism was proposed in 3GPP Release 11 (Rel-11), wherein inter-cell interference can be further reduced through cancellation of interference on common control channels of ABS caused by Common Reference Signals (CRS) of high power macro cells and critical broadcast system information can be better detected in the cell range extension region around the metro cell. However, the eICIC/FeICIC mechanisms have a negative impact on a capacity of the macro cell.